Posted: Thu 04 Jun 2009, 09:46 Post_subject:
How to Do a Dual-Boot Install of Puppy with Windows XP

Update: This package now contains two installer scripts. You can either boot the target machine off a Live CD or a USB drive.

------------------------------------

If you want to install Puppy on a hard drive along with Windows, there are several strategies. Before starting, read here.

The method described below creates a separate partition for Puppy and makes it the "boot" partition. Your Windows setup is not changed. If you ever decide to delete Puppy and return to an all-Windows machine, you will only need to reset the Windows partition as bootable. (You can do this by running GParted from any Puppy Live CD.)

Be aware that this method may not work on some older machines whose BIOS cannot boot a partition at the far end of the hard drive.

If your machine already has another Linux installed, do not use this method unless you plan to delete it.

Download the attachment below, extract the folder "install-with-win" and save it to a flash drive. The folder contains two scripts named "install-cd" and "install-usb". You will use the one that matches how you boot the target machine.

There are three main steps to building your dual-boot setup.

Step One

Note: If you have Vista or Windows 7, do NOT use Gparted. Instead, use Windows' own Disk Management tool.

You must shrink your Windows partition to create space for Puppy. You will do this using the GParted program in Puppy's System menu or with a standalone Live CD like Parted Magic. Here are some hints:

1. Just to be safe, have Windows check the health of your hard drive before you start partitioning. Go to My Computer and right-click on the C: icon. Select Properties > Tools > Error-checking.

2. To run GParted from within Puppy, you must boot off the Live CD and use the option:

Code:

puppy pfix=ram

This leaves the hard drive unlocked so you can change it.

3. Always shrink Windows from the end of its partition. Do not move the partition to the right to create space in front. Windows does not like to be moved around! If you are not comfortable doing this step, you should consider using the Lin'n'Win procedure instead.

4. In GParted, right-clicking on an entry brings up a menu of operations. Nothing permanent is done to your hard drive until you click the Apply button.

5. Format the new Puppy partition as ext3 primary. Your drive can have other NTFS or FAT32 partitions belonging to Windows. However, the installer will assume that the first ext partition it finds on the drive is reserved for Puppy.

6. A few GB of space is plenty for a basic Puppy frugal install. If you plan to save lots of content to your Puppy partition, make it larger.

7. You do not need to build a separate swap partition. The installer will automatically make a swap file for you.

8. After repartitioning, boot up Windows to check its integrity. Windows may go through its hardware rediscovery procedure or do a hard drive scan.

Step Two

Boot off the Puppy Live CD using

Code:

puppy pfix=ram

Run GParted again. Right-click on the entry for the Windows partition and select Manage Flags. Note how the "boot" option is checked.

Now right-click on the new Puppy partition and select Manage Flags. Put a check mark on its "boot" option. The next time you boot your computer, it will start from the Puppy partition instead of Windows.

Step Three

Mount the flash drive, open the "install-with-win" folder and click on the icon "install-cd" or "install-usb".

The installer will identify the new ext3 partition and ask you a YES/NO question before continuing.

The installer does a frugal install and makes a swap file.

Finally, it configures the GRUB bootloader. It places the GRUB Stage1 code on the partition boot sector. The MBR of the hard drive is not changed.

If you have been keeping a pup_save file somewhere in your Windows setup, move it over to the new Puppy partition now.

Do a shutdown/reboot and make a pup_save file if you need one. Be sure to select the correct partition.

On the next boot, you will get a GRUB menu showing both Puppy and Windows. Your dual-boot setup is complete. If there are any left-over Puppy files still in the Windows partition, you can delete them.

Note: The GRUB menu assumes that Windows is in the first partition of the hard drive. But on many machines, the first partition contains a rescue system and Windows is on the second partition. You will need to edit the GRUB menu.lst file and change (hd0,0) to (hd0,1). Look for this file in the folder /boot/grub at the root of your Puppy partition.

new post -
i was able to install this just fine. the key is to exactly follow all the instructions. for the other poster who is having trouble, please re-read and make sure you are doing exactly what they said.

--------------
old post -
Puppy rocks! Great post to help install.

I partitioned my hard drive, formatted it to ext2, set this new partition as boot drive. At Step 3, I downloaded the gz file, extracted and clicked on frugal-with-XP icon, I get error ' sh:scripts/fru4win: no suh file or directory'.

just wondering....will this method also work on empty partitions? i am planning to repartition one of my partitions into 2 partitions so i can install Puppy on it, if this method will allow me to select the partition that i want to use rather than automatically selecting the first partition, then i'll give it a go....

- made other old slave disk the "master", formatted back to "factory virgin" using powermax/maxtor floppy (but many free downloadable manufacturers' tools will do) using function "low level format" (count about 2 hours for 20GB)

Note; because of remarks I got at experiments (windows) with PartitionMagic "greater maybe unbootable" (older Bios), started with system partitions Windows 4000MB and Linux 7000 respectively, only ... to be manipulated later, at need.

Install went wonderful: Puppy FULL and DEFAULTS only, Grub immediately accepted, opening screen (grub) all partitions at choice for booting.

Very important, gaining computer speed especially at high system load, games, moving large packages etc.,: having 2xHD, (extra) swap on non-system disk crosswise, so banned WinME swap to available FAT32 partition on Linux disk and arranging already mentioned Linuxswap partition on Windows disk (Linux traces/uses every linux-swap-formatted partition at sight).

I happen to need older Windows, of which FULLY UPDATED (updates still freely available by clicking "Windows Update") Windows ME (unstable till last updates came available shortly before official support stopped) being the newest "oldie", because I have an old win95-era scanner "scanny" and moreover need "windows moviemaker" for home filming with webcam and microphone, both not (yet) replaceable in any Linux distro.

Puppy could not power-off the computer at first, but somebody whose name I don't remember (my old age, hehe) on Chat advised me to add on Kernel line of /boot/grub/menu.lst .... acpi=force ... and this works.

O.k, I am not at all a technician, rather a "daring" user ... but maybe the results of my frantic experiments are of some use to others. At any rate, I got what I needed .... old Dutch proverb I try to translate: "if things can't go as they should, then they shall go as they could".

I have a working XP and Puppy431 Dual Boot set up and want to add Lupu501 to the menu.lst but when I try to boot I get error 15 and have to go back and boot Puppy431 or nothing. I tried to copy what was in my menu.lst and add the changes to make Lupu501 boot. Here is what a portion of my menu.lst looks like.

The first part works for 431, the 2nd part doesn't for lupu501. It must be something simple. I am a noobie and I can't seem to find a menu.lst with 501 in it to see if the syntax is correct. Please direct me towards a solution, tx_________________Asus EeePc 900A w/Puppeee1.0 with 3G modem (Sierra 598U)
AMD Duron 797Mhz w/Puppy4.31 & Puppy2.14& Puppy4.20
Dell Dimension 2350 w/Quirky1.20Retro & Lucid Puppy5.10& Wolfe020

I have a working XP and Puppy431 Dual Boot set up and want to add Lupu501 to the menu.lst but when I try to boot I get error 15 and have to go back and boot Puppy431 or nothing. I tried to copy what was in my menu.lst and add the changes to make Lupu501 boot. Here is what a portion of my menu.lst looks like.

The first part works for 431, the 2nd part doesn't for lupu501. It must be something simple. I am a noobie and I can't seem to find a menu.lst with 501 in it to see if the syntax is correct. Please direct me towards a solution, tx

Your syntax looks correct.
Are both frugal installs in the same partition?
Is the psubdir named "lupu501"? The name must match exactly with no spaces or any differences.

Here's part of the menu lst showing my 501 frugal....I use extra boot parameters but the basics are the same....

There is only one partition and the others are installed inside that partition. The XP was there first and I followed instructions to get 431 to work with XP put without making it have it own partition (so far). So all three of them are in same partition. As far as I understand this the OSfile and save file are there and when asked to load into RAM and don't use the HDD for anything other than to save to.
This is on an older AMD Duron PC (tower) Maybe I am trying to do something that isn't possible. Thanks for your help._________________Asus EeePc 900A w/Puppeee1.0 with 3G modem (Sierra 598U)
AMD Duron 797Mhz w/Puppy4.31 & Puppy2.14& Puppy4.20
Dell Dimension 2350 w/Quirky1.20Retro & Lucid Puppy5.10& Wolfe020

I went back in and deleted everything I did to Puppy501 and started over and used the puppy universal installer and it worked just fine and when it came around to edit the menu.lst it was just like I was told to do it by James C. I had changed it to be like that and it still didn't work, but it did after it was installed using the installer and it gave me the same stuff to put there so it was something else that was wrong. I am confused why it is called Puppy501 but the .iso is lupu501. I thought that would be the proper thing to call it, but then again I am not a Linux person, yet..... so this is fixed, thanks_________________Asus EeePc 900A w/Puppeee1.0 with 3G modem (Sierra 598U)
AMD Duron 797Mhz w/Puppy4.31 & Puppy2.14& Puppy4.20
Dell Dimension 2350 w/Quirky1.20Retro & Lucid Puppy5.10& Wolfe020

Hi. I'm new here. Tried Puppy (Lupu 5.0.1) and love it. I want a dual-boot setup with XP. I have one 300GB hard drive, with XP in the first 50GB partition (ntfs), Puppy in the second 10GB (ext2), and the rest is fat32. It's an older machine Intel 867 with 512MB of RAM, but runs just fine.

Followed the instructions and had no problems 'til Step 3. Mounted the flash drive, clicked on the "install-with-XP" folder and it opened with XArchive. Clicked on the file "frugal-with-XP". Nothing. Double-clicked. Nothing. Extracted the "frugal-with-XP" file and clicked on it. A window opens then immediately closes. Too fast to read.